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I didn't understand the article's point at first because to me, medicine is not a great example of evidence-driven policies. The American health insurance syste
by lacker 8y ago
I didn't understand the article's point at first because to me, medicine is not a great example of evidence-driven policies. The American health insurance system does not appear to be optimized by any sort of metric, much less to be driven by evidence. Many key decisions, like how many doctors should be given medical degrees each year, are not subject to any evidence at all. And just at a high level in terms of performance for cost something is fundamentally "not working" in medicine over the past couple decades.
It's true that for the micro decisions, like does drug X treat condition Y, medicine appears to be much more evidence-based than, say, sociology. But the overall dysfunction of medical policymaking makes me dubious of using medicine as a model for other fields of decisionmaking.
- jacobush 8y agoIt's optimised for efficient transfer of tax payer money to the industry with as little distraction as possible, such as wasting money on actual care. As with everything the USA sets out to do, it excels at it.
- rayiner 8y agoEven at the micro level: many childbearing related dictates (don’t drink, do breastfeed) are based on extremly weak evidence. Emotion trumps data in many cases even in medicine.
- chaosite 8y agoWhat do you mean by "don't drink" being based on extremely weak evidence? Do you mean after the pregnancy, or while trying to conceive? Because the harms of drinking during pregnancy are well known. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is a real thing, as are other Fetal Alcohol Spectrum disorders.
- fosco 8y agoI was aware of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome but not Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders [0]. Thank you for sharing. From what I ahve read the dont drink and do breast feed have fairly strong research behind them so I am a bit confused by the weak correlation comment as well. Anecdotally, while in Europe I do see it extremely commonplace for women to have a few wines while pregnant. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fetal_alcohol_spectrum_disorder https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fetal_alcohol_spectrum_disorde...
- winstonewert 8y agoI don't know if this is what the OP was referring to but to quote the wikipedia article: > Evidence of harm from less than two drinks per day or 10 drinks per week is not clear It seems there is strong evidence that "heavy" drinking is bad, the evidence that you shouldn't drink at all is much less clear.